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Formula One: Nico Rosberg quickest on day three of test at Jerez

1 of 5Bruno Senna participated in day three of the Formula One test at Jerez.

Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

2 of 5Romain Grosjean was second quickest during testing at Jerez on Thursday.

Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

3 of 5Lewis Hamilton finished testing on Thursday in fourth place on the speed chart for the session.

Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

4 of 5Nico Rosberg put 118 laps on his Mercedes during day three of the Formula One test at Jerez.

Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

5 of 5Two-time defending Formula One champion Sebestian Vettel was third quickest on Thursday at Jerez.

Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Formula One preseason testing continued for a third day at Jerez in Spain on Thursday, with three world champions taking to the track for the first time in 2012 as most teams swapped their drivers in the cars.

However, Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg's lap of 1 minute, 17.613 seconds put him at the top of the times for the day, as the German completed 118 laps, second only to the 125 laps Bruno Senna ran for Williams-Renault.

As for the champions, Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton each got their first experience in their new cars from Red Bull Racing, Ferrari and McLaren-Mercedes, respectively.

In addition, Romain Grosjean took over the Lotus from Kimi Räikkönen, Jean-Éric Vergne replaced Daniel Ricciardo at Scuderia Toro Rosso and Senna got his first run after stepping into the Williams vacated by teammate Pastor Maldonado. It was Senna's first on-track appearance for his new team.

Nico Hulkenberg was set to take over the Force India-Ferrari in the afternoon, but he failed to make it onto the tarmac after reserve driver Jules Bianchi crashed the car at the very start of the morning session.

Dutchman Giedo van der Garde took over the Caterham from Heikki Kovalainen, prior to handing the car to Jarno Trulli on Friday.

Rosberg, like teammate Michael Schumacher earlier this week, drove last year's Mercedes as the new car undergoes final development back at the factory. Meanwhile, the HRT team skipped Thursday's running, as it only planned to test for two days, with Pedro de la Rosa also driving last year's car.

Grosjean's Lotus-Renault was the quickest of the 2012-spec cars on the track on Thursday, followed by Vettel's Red Bull and Hamilton's McLaren.

“It's been two months since we were in the car, so it does take a couple of laps to get back in the rhythm, but the car feels fine and as we expected,” Vettel said. “There's quite a loss of grip due to the regulation changes [that have banned exhaust-blown diffusers], but you get used to it quickly and then start to explore how the new car feels. So far we can be happy. We had a couple of issues, but it's normal when the car is new.”

Ian Morgan, Red Bull's head of race engineering, said, “Sebastian's first day in the car went almost perfectly. It was very cold this morning and hard to get temperature into the tires. That meant that the first couple of hours weren't too productive, but later on the conditions were great with less wind than yesterday. So we managed to get through almost everything we wanted, including two long runs, which went well. We would have done a third, but there were a couple of red flags at the end of the session so we missed a few laps. But we can't complain, as it's gone well.

“Tomorrow's program will be more of the same. We're on course to tick off all the things we wanted to get done and we hope we can complete the list tomorrow.”

Hamilton commented, “Today felt pretty good considering it was my first time in the new car. My initial feelings are pretty positive, despite going through a long, tough program of initial tests. There were no nasty surprises, which is pleasing.

“This year's car feels a bit different from last year's. In 2011, we had so much stability from the rear end, particularly in the high-speed corners. But we're now having to find that grip elsewhere, or, at least, take grip off the front and somehow offload it at the rear.

“This car's baseline is something we can really work with. I know the men and women back at the factory will take a lot from this test and translate it into something new and even better for the next test. The car feels reasonably quick, and that's a nice feeling.”